Outraged Police Have A Plan For People Who Leave Dogs In Hot Cars


A Florida police department has made a stern proposal to people who leave dogs in hot cars. This comes after a spate of warnings to the general public that leaving pets inside a vehicle when temperatures soar is inexcusable. Despite those warnings, irresponsible pet owners continue locking their dogs in hot cars and trucks.

To show they mean business, the Pensacola Police Department published an attention-grabbing proposal on Facebook. The message is a serious warning to anyone who even considers leaving their animal trapped inside a blistering hot vehicle this summer.

The department wrote, “Don’t. Just don’t. If you leave your dog in a hot car and that dog is suffering, we will do whatever we have to do to free him. Or her. Doesn’t matter, we like both kinds of dogs. We will drive your pooch to the caring folks at the Escambia County Animal Shelter and we will drop you off with the caring folks at the Escambia County Detention Facility. You will both receive attention, food, and shelter, albeit different kinds. So, don’t”

The post received 17K likes and 13,000 comments.

According to Huffington Post, the police were outraged after recently breaking through a car’s window to rescue a puppy suffering in the 108-degree heat. The pup’s photo is seen in the Pensacola Police Department’s Facebook post above.

When exposed to extreme heat, dogs risk permanent organ damage or death, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

People shouldn’t be fooled by outdoor temperatures because temperatures in a car rise dramatically. Within an hour, temperatures inside a car can be 104-degrees if it’s only 70-degrees outside. In just a 10-minute span, a car’s temperature can rise to 100-degrees if it’s only 80-degrees outside.

The Pensacola Police Department will do whatever they have to in order to rescue a suffering animal that’s locked in a hot car. There have been several instances of this occurring around the nation.

There are 16 states that have laws in place to protect dogs that are suffering in hot cars (Photo Credit: Bark Post).

Doggies Care posted an article about an Ohio policeman who made a dog’s owner sit inside the car she left her dog in on a hot day. The woman sat inside the car a few minutes without the engine on. She said she felt fine, but the officer said she looked uncomfortable. The dog owner was told that if she did that again, she’d be cited.

A similar incident occurred in New Mexico when a woman left her dog in a hot car. The responding officer also made her sit the hot car to see how it felt. She said what the officer did was “abusive.”

What about when police have to break glass and use another means of getting inside a car to help a suffering animal? Weather.com reported back in March that Florida Governor Rick Scott “passed a bill making it legal to break into locked vehicles to rescue pets or vulnerable people believed to be in imminent danger of suffocation or other harm.”

According to Bark Post, there are 16 states with laws in place to protect dogs from suffering in hot cars. Florida isn’t highlighted as one of them, but that changed in March.

Shockingly, several states don’t have laws in place to protect dogs in hot cars. The ones that do are Arizona, California, Nevada, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and West Virginia.

Do you believe police should be able to break into someone’s car to rescue a suffering dog in a hot car?

[Photo via Shutterstock]

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